ERI: Reaction Mechanisms Against Cyberattacks Designed to Result in Voltage Collapse in Smart Power Distribution Systems: Modeling and Experimental Validation Frameworks

尽管美国大规模电网的安全冗余程度很高，但人们承认，复杂的网络攻击可能会导致美国电力系统瘫痪。加强电网等国家基础设施的网络安全是主要关切。这导致了一部关于电力系统网络安全的重要研究文献。这些文献大多侧重于网络攻击的预防，而较少关注于处理旨在绕过检测阶段的攻击。因此，本研究将研究绕过检测阶段的网络攻击引发的电力系统事故的补救反应机制。该项目中开发的补救行动框架将产生新的见解，对于致力于提高智能配电系统对不可检测的网络攻击的弹性的研究人员/工程师来说，这些见解将是有价值的。这项研究的结果将通过行业研讨会与专业工程师(PE)分享，提供专业开发时间，并更新他们关于电力系统易受网络攻击的知识。此外，该项目将通过暑期研讨会扩大对工程的参与，让来自代表性不足群体的K-12学生参与进来，目的是使STEM领导者多样化，以实现美国电网的现代运营。该项目的重点是解决以下研究问题：“如何应对对配电系统中自动变压器的有载调压(LTC)机制的网络攻击，以应对预期的电压崩溃。”在此范围内，研究的第一个目标是调查LTC在针对配电系统电压崩溃的网络攻击中的脆弱性。对于配电系统运营商来说，达到这一目标将导致绕过基于状态估计的不良数据检测的复杂攻击模型，基于该模型可以制定现实的补救措施。第二个目标是设计主/备用反应机制，以减轻受攻击的LTC造成的电压崩溃。为了实现这一目标，将创建几种算法来设计一种基于深度学习框架定制的配电网重构的初步补救技术。主要反应计划将得到以电力市场为基础的后备机制的支持，其中分布式同步发电机将以最佳方式帮助缓解网络重新配置未完全缓解的系统区域的网络攻击。最后，这项研究的第三个目标是在实验室规模的智能微电网上对所提出的补救行动进行硬件在环实验验证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite high levels of security redundancy in the U.S. bulk electric power grid, it is acknowledged that a sophisticated cyber attack could potentially bring down the U.S. power system. Strengthening the cyber security of national infrastructures such as the power grid is of major concern. This has led to a significant research literature on power systems cybersecurity. Most of this literature focuses on cyberattack prevention and less on dealing with attacks aimed at bypassing the detection stage. Hence, this research will study reaction mechanisms to remediate incidents on power systems that are caused by cyberattacks bypassing the detection stage. The developed remedial action frameworks in this project will yield new insights that will be valuable to researchers/engineers working on resilience improvement for smart distribution systems against non-detectable cyberattacks. The outcomes of this research will be shared with professional engineers (PEs) via industry seminars, providing professional development hours and updating their knowledge on vulnerability of power systems to cyberattacks. In addition, the project will broaden participation in engineering through summer workshops to involve K-12 students from underrepresented groups for the purpose of diversifying the STEM leaders for modern operation of the U.S power grid.The focus of this project is to address the following research issue: “How to react to cyberattacks on the load tap changing (LTC) mechanism of autotransformers within power distribution systems to tackle an intended voltage collapse.” Within this scope, the first objective of the research is to investigate vulnerability of LTCs to cyberattacks targeting voltage collapse in distribution systems. Reaching this objective for a distribution system operator will result in a sophisticated attack model that bypasses state estimation-based bad data detection, based on which realistic remedial actions can be developed. The second objective is to design primary/backup reaction mechanisms to mitigate the voltage collapse resulting from the attacked LTCs. To attain this objective, several algorithms will be created to design a primary remediation technique based on distribution network reconfiguration customized by a deep learning framework. The primary reaction scheme will be supported by a backup electricity market-based mechanism, where distributed synchronous generators will optimally contribute to mitigation of cyberattacks in the regions of the system not fully alleviated by network reconfiguration. Finally, the third objective of this research is to perform hardware-in-the-loop experimental validation of the proposed remedial actions on a lab-scale smart microgrid.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.